The Pickens County Progress will host a forum on Thursday, May 3rd that will include candidates from all three local races.

Residents are invited to come with their questions and ask about issues that matter to them.

Local races, to be decided in the May 22nd primary, are:

• West end (District 1) Commissioner: Jerry Barnes (Incumbent, (R), Amberle Johnson Godfrey (R), Bart Connelley (R). You must live in District 1 to vote in this race.

• School Board (Post 3): Byron Long (Incumbent, R) and Tucker Green (R). Candidates for school board must live in their district, but are elected county-wide.

• Jasper City Council: Kirk Raffield and Doug Patterson. You must live in the city limits of Jasper to vote in this race.

The forum will be held in the Pickens Room at the Pickens County Administration Building from 6 - 7:30 p.m. Each race will be allotted 30 minutes for questions. The event will be moderated by Progress contributor Larry Cavender, who also moderated the Jasper City Council forum last year and the Cherokee County Sheriff’s race prior to that.

Early Voting starts Monday

Early Voting will begin Monday, April 30 and run through Friday, May 18. Voting is Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Saturday voting day is May 12th from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The primary is on Tuesday, May 22 at regular polling paces from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Uncontested races

The following candidates will automatically take office because they qualified in uncontested races: School Board Post 2 – Joeta Youngblood; School Board Post 5 – Steven Smith.

They will replace current board members Daniel Bell and Delane Lewis in January; Nelson City Council – Nathan Hamby was recently sworn in.